10 Jul ACAP Psychology Clinic supports the family and friends of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder
The Australian College of Applied Psychology’s Psychology Clinic is a great opportunity for final year Master of Clinical Psychology students to gain hands-on experience working directly with members of the community living with mental health issues. The clinic runs student facilitated groups for people living with issues including Eating Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder, Social Anxiety and Depression and groups supporting families and carers of those living with mental health issues. These groups are offered at low cost making it more affordable for clients, families and carers to get the support they need.
The Family Connections Program is one of the successful groups run at the clinic. This group supports those caring for people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), including parents, spouses, adult children and siblings by providing them with the knowledge and skills that will be helpful to them for their own wellbeing in living with a relative with BPD. The program helps those relatives build a support network with other individuals with a relative with BPD.
Provisionally-registered psychologist Lei Micallef co-facilitated a recent group and said of her experience that “given the large size of the group and the high attendance rate each week, it was clear this population feel particularly isolated and in desperate need of emotional and practical support”.
According to Sane Australia, BPD is a common mental illness where “people affected have difficulty managing their emotions and impulses, relating to people and maintaining a stable self-image. BPD can be highly distressing for the person affected, and often for their family and friends too.” SANE Australia’s data suggest that 1-4% of the population are affected by BPD at some time in life and that symptoms usually appear, mostly in females, during late adolescence or early adulthood.
More information on the ACAP Psychology Clinic can be found here https://www.acap.edu.au/about-acap/acap-psychology-clinic/
References: SANE Australia (2018), https://www.sane.org/mental-health-and-illness/facts-and-guides/borderline-personality-disorder